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Wednesday evening saw the highly-anticipated premiere of the new Czech film Občanský průkaz about youth & rebellion during the Normalisation period in Communist Czechoslovakia. Directed by Ondřej Trojan of Želary fame, Občanský průkaz (which means identity card or simply I.D.) is being distributed by Falcon films. Radio Prague spoke to the head of Falcon, Jan Bradáč, and asked him how the opening went.

Czech Prime Minister, Petr Nečas, on Tuesday confirmed that one of the biggest building contracts in the country and world, the building of two new nuclear reactors at the current Temelín site, and up to three more elsewhere, faces delays. He also said that the government not power company, ČEZ, will have the last say in negotiations with three multinational constructors. The Czech delays have highlighted a key question about whether those constructors can provide the guarantees and have the wherewithal to build the new nuclear plants that many

Four Czechs behind a brutal arson attack last year, that targeted the home of a Romany family in the east of the country, have been handed extraordinary sentences of up to 22 years in jail. The verdict is the toughest ever handed down in the country regarding a racially-motivated crime.

Czech and Slovak police units specialized in fighting organized crime announced on Tuesday they had arrested six members of a gang which sold weapons and explosives to the underworld in the Czech Republic and abroad. During raids at a number of Czech and Slovak locations police confiscated a vast amount of weapons and explosives.

One of the biggest names in boxing history, Mike Tyson, was to have begun a five-day visit to the Czech capital on Tuesday. But in the end the former world heavyweight champion is not coming, after organisers had to call off the visit at the very last minute due to a lack of funds.

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra will soon be under new management: specifically that of David Mareček, who the Ministry of Culture appointed to lead the orchestra on Monday. It is hoped that the youthful director of the Brno Philharmonic will bring new vigour to the post and especially an end to years of disputes between the orchestra and its management. Christian Falvey has the story.

As the dust settles on the weekend’s local and Senate elections, one loser stands out: the smallest party in the coalition government, Public Affairs. Just five months after making a breakthrough in national elections, Public Affairs appears to have suffered an equally dramatic setback. We look at the party’s election debacle and prospects.

Local elections and the first round of voting to a third of the upper house, the Senate, delivered a mixed bag of results over the weekend. Locally, the right wing Civic Democrats lost mastery of Prague to coalition partner TOP 09 and control of a series of other big cities, sometimes to the Social Democrats and sometimes to groups of citizens demanding change. Local factor often proved decisive in colouring the municipal map. In the Senate elections, the Social Democrats look well placed for the second round. Petr Just is a political analyst at

The municipal and Senate elections that took place in the Czech Republic over the weekend have no clear winners – but they do have several losers. In the local elections, independent candidates won the most seats on municipal councils, while the coalition Civic Democrats suffered a serious setback, losing most big and medium-sized towns and cities, including the capital Prague. In the first round of voting for seats to a third of the Senate, 22 Social Democrat candidates made it to the second round, followed by 19 Civic Democrats.

The past few weeks have seen commuters in Prague able to test – for the first time - the brand new 15T ForCity tram, designed by Škoda Transportation. The 15T, still undergoing trial runs, is boxier but arguably more refined than previous models, offering more room for passengers (up to 61 seated and 239 standing) as well as a slew of improvements. It is, for example, the first 100 percent low-floor tram in the Czech Republic) making it very user-friendly.